


Of Swans and Wolves

by nothingeverlost



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-22
Updated: 2014-07-22
Packaged: 2018-02-09 22:43:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2000706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of prompts about Graham and Emma.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gloved (Xmen AU)

"You’ll be too busy with other things, my dear. You won’t even want to follow me." 

"I’ll follow you to hell if that’s what it takes." Emma stood with her arms spread wide, metal claws exposed.

"If hell is what you want…" Emma looked down in horror as her own hand began to move. She fought to hold it, but the woman she faced had control of all things metal, and Emma’s whole skeleton was covered in adamantium.

"Graham, run," she shouted when she realized what was happening, but it was too late. Her hand was covered in blood as her own claws pierced Graham’s gut, the longest sticking out through his back.

"I did warn you, dear." Emma didn’t see where the woman went; she only had eyes for Graham as he fell backwards onto the ground.

"No. Don’t you dare leave me, Graham. Don’t you dare." Her claws retracted immediately, but too late. She couldn’t stop the bleeding no matter how much pressure she put on the wounds.

"Don’t blame yourself for this, Emma." Graham’s hand reached up for her, but fell back when he didn’t have even that much strength. "I love you."

When his eyes closed she knew there was only one thing left to do. She pulled off one of his gloves, pulling up her shirt and pressing the exposed skin to her chest. 

They’d never touched without gloves before.

"Work, damn it. You have to live, Graham." In despair she thought it might be too late. And then a wave of pain unlike anything she’d felt before hit her. It was like she was on fire and frozen at the same time. And then there was darkness.

"You’re very lucky." Emma woke up in a room she recognized almost immediately as being the infirmary at the school. Gold was at her side in his wheelchair. "Belle says with a little rest you’ll recover fully."

"Graham?" She didn’t care about her health.

"He’s very upset with you. He’s probably out in the hall; it’s been impossible to get him to move very far while you slept." There was just the slightest hint of a smile at the corner of Gold’s mouth. He was a hard man to read unless you looked close. "Shall I send him in?"

"Yes." Graham was alive; it was what mattered.


	2. The Price of Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From a request for a Dirty Dancing AU

"Emma wait." Graham jumped over the banister of his cottage, but Emma had already sprinted away. It was lucky for him that his legs were longer and he was able to catch her before she passed through the wooded area that separated the staff housing from the rest of the camp. He was lucky, too, that Regina didn’t slink but walked the main path. No one in the camp would dare scold her for being in the staff only area. her husband paid too much money every summer to dare cross her.

"Emma you have to listen." She had been early for their lesson. Regina should have been long gone before Emma had arrived.  
"I don’t have to do anything. I was doing you a favor but I’m done now. You can find someone else to dance with you." She pushed him when he tried to reach for her, her face blazing with anger. He’d seen her passion from the first day, in the way she talked about her dreams, her insistence on how the world should be, her conviction that her father could help Ruby, and her promise to learn the dance steps to help him. He’d never seen her anger.

"Regina…"

"I don’t want to know." She stepped back, arms wrapped around herself, looking much younger than her seventeen years. "I thought it meant something when you kissed me, but that’s just part of your MO, isn’t it? Learn enough steps and you get a kiss, a few more and some heavy petting. How many dances do I need to have down before I get to call you pet?"

"It’s not like that." His skin crawled at the thought of comparing Regina to Emma, or Emma thinking she meant so little. "You’re not like that. I swear it."

"Leave me alone, Graham. There’s charades in the main hall, and if I get there soon I won’t even have to lie to mom and dad about where I’ve been. It’s not like I’m coming back." The woods weren’t thick, but he had to dodge a few trees to catch up to her.

"I don’t want to teach Regina, and I don’t want her in my cottage. I don’t have a choice, Emma." He jogged in front of her, stopping her with a hand on each shoulder. He hated himself for holding on when she squirmed, but he had to at least have a chance to explain.

"You weren’t exactly pushing her out of your bed." The fact that he could see a tear she was fighting to keep back both broke him and reassured him. At least it mattered to her. He wasn’t a nothing, not like he was with Regina.

"The last guy that had my job, he said no to Regina. She told her husband that he’d tried to rape her. Do you know how many jobs he’s gotten without a reference?" He let her go, running a hand through his hair. "I have three and a half months every summer of making a good salary and almost matching that in tips. The rest of the year I barely get by, and that’s because I save up everything I earn here. I can’t afford to piss off someone like Regina."

"That bitch." Emma’s anger still had al of her muscles tensed and her jaw clenched, but it wasn’t aimed at him anymore. Graham was relaxed. For a moment. "I’ll tell my dad and…"

"You can’t do that." Accusations against Regina would end in trouble. "Please, Emma, not just for me. There’s a lot of people that could be hurt."

"Graham…"

"Please." He cupped her cheek, letting out the breath he’d been holding when she didn’t pull away. "She’s gone in a week. I can avoid her."

"She shouldn’t be allowed to treat people like that." Emma reached up, cupping his cheek in a mirror of his action. "She shouldn’t have that kind of power."

"She doesn’t matter, Emma. There’s only one person I want to dance with, and one person I want to kiss." He waited.

"You better be talking about me, Graham Humbert." She leaned against the tree behind her, tilting her head back.

"Only you, Emma Nolan." She tasted like spring.


End file.
